Christmas Eve – Midnight.

He grinned as her rear wheels fishtailed into the Navasink house’s driveway.  Somehow her tight, knee length corduroy skirt had ended up around her waist, and a black stocking was sliding down one of her creamy white thighs.  

Wincing at the way she threw it into park and jerked the emergency brake, he wheezed out a breath when she landed on his lap.   The seatbelt snapped against the window, and her fingers went for his buckle with shaking fingers.  

Okay, so he’d been tormenting her for most of the ride home.  The silky texture of said torment was cooling on his hand to be exact.  She gripped him with her knees even as he found her wet and swollen for him once more.  Could he make her come one more time even before he got inside of her?

Could he stand to wait?

Her fingers encircled him and ejected that thought.  His head slammed back against the headrest.  Three years together could have been three months for all the cooling down they’d done.  He wanted her as much now as he did when they’d first met.  

“Inside me,” she muttered against his neck.  Her teeth nipped at his jaw, at his neck, and at his ear as she lifted herself.  His fingers gripped her hips.  Part of him wanted to drive deep, but the other half of him loved it right here—right at this precipice. 

Pleasure spiked so high that the inevitable crash would be almost painful.  Wild for her, he soaked in her scent.  Pears and the heady scent of sex fogged the windows, beading up with each pant of breath.  Soft whimpers and even softer skin surrounded him.  The first grip of her walls around his cock scrambled what was left of his advantage.  

There was only Tessa.

Only the way they joined together.  

Her hair rained down around them, trapping him in a cocoon of her.  The white twinkle lights that decorated the front of the house infused the car in a soft glow, highlighting the curve of her jaw, the bright green of her eyes, and the pleasure that only increased his own.

Fisting his hand in to the back of her hair, he dragged her mouth to his, swallowing the groan he could feel building.  He drove himself deeper, wanting to know and feel all of her.  Her fingers bit into his shoulders, his belly, his back as she tried to get closer.  

The car impeded more than it gave, but the roll of her hips and the friction in the restriction was enough to blast his senses apart.  His name on her lips, in his ear as she shuddered above him, and the strength of her arms around him was all he knew—all he cared about.  

Holding on, he felt her splinter apart around him.  The fact that he knew her so well wasn’t boring in his mind.  It was limitless in the possibilities and the comfort it brought him.  He didn’t think he’d ever be as close to someone again in his life.  He certainly didn’t know he could love like this again.

As she took him and closed around him, he finally let himself go.  With her, the control didn’t matter as much as the connection.  Knowing that the ultimate connection was over, made him want to start it all over again, even if his body wasn’t exactly willing yet.

The fresh wash of tears that dripped down his neck dragged him out of the thick afterglow.  “Baby,”  he soothed.  

“They aren’t bad tears,” she sniffled.  “This is what matters that’s all.  Nothing that Carol says to me tomorrow can matter when we have this.”

Frustration tensed his shoulders, even as she dug her fingers into his skin in reaction, he couldn’t quite make himself shake it off.  They did have as close to a perfect life as he could find with all the changes that had happened in the last few years. Did he want his kids with him all the time? Yes.  Did he hate that he had to share time with his family and his job? Yes.

Did he make the sacrifice? Yes.

Didn’t mean he had to like it.  

He eased her back, kissing the silvery tracks of her tears.  “If I could force my will on that woman, I would have done it a long time ago.  Just remember one thing,” he lifted a lock of red curls away from her face.  “All that backbone you showed me in the last three years—everything you’ve ever had to do to deal with me, just double it.”

“Thank God, it’s only for a day or so.”

He laughed, catching her lips in a soft kiss.  His hands dropped to her hips where they were still connected.  “I so don’t want to move.”

“Well, it’s gonna get pretty cold out here.”

“Where I am, isn’t cold at all.”

“You are a very bad man.” But the laughter was back in her voice, and in the sparkle of her eyes.  

“Let’s go inside and celebrate properly.” She leaned back to find the handle and stepped out into the cold.  “Good Christ, talk about shrinkage!” He yelped, dragging his jeans back up. 

Giggling, she snapped her stocking up on her thigh.  For a moment he didn’t mind the cold, but then she shimmied her skirt down.  Following her out of the car, he slammed the door and dragged her to the house. Hefting her over his shoulder he headed for the stairs.

“Jon!”

He stilled her with a quick pop on the ass.  “I want our fireplace and our bed, and a goddamn glass of wine.  All of that’s upstairs.”

“You just wanted an excuse to use the wine fridge I got you for upstairs.”

“A very good present indeed.  I love how you buy in pairs.”  For their anniversary she’d installed a tiny wine fridge in SoHo and in NJ for their bedroom.  Stocking it with his favorite wines had been a great surprise, the fact that she’d modeled it for him like one of the presenters on the Price is Right, with far less clothing, was a bonus.

Especially when she bent down to do so.

He set her on her feet, pushing off her coat, sweater and skirt before she could say a word.  In the light of their bedroom, he saw what he’d missed in the car.  LaPerla black lace and silver satin cupped her breast and rode high on her hips.  Black leather boots hugged her calves.  Tempted to leave them on, he finally unzipped them.  Christmas red with some sort of sparkle was his reward for ditching the boots and tights.

Standing, he let her undress him, though she took her time with buttons and zippers more than he’d like.  With the crackle of the fire behind them, and two pendent lights glowing beside their bed she unwrapped him like a present.  And when they loved again, it was slower this time.  The initial rush of lust had been dispensed leaving a longing he’d never thought he could find.

Each touch was a gift, and each breathy sigh washed away the promotional stress he’d been living with.  A necessary evil, he knew, but people asking the same questions again and again took their toll.  Time with her like this was exactly what he needed.  And when he rolled her under him and she stared up at him like that, he could do just about anything.